Page 9 of Inception

“All Saints?”

“It’s this bar everyone goes to. There’s tons of hot guys. And pool tables, and dancing, and decent food if you get there early enough. But did I mention the hot guys?”

“I don’t have a fake ID.” Besides, I had vampire-research to do and phone calls to make. Mainly to my inaccessible sister who was refusing to cooperate with me.

“You don’t need one,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “They’ll just stamp your hand at the door.”

“Oh.” I scrambled for another excuse. “I don’t know,” I told her, shaking my head. “I’m pretty tired, and I still have a lot to unpack.”A whole, entire duffle bag.

Her face scrunched up. “You cansodo that tomorrow. I’ll even help you if you want. C’mon, you have to come. Everyone’s going to be there. And you know what they say, when in Rome…something or another.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her misguided logic.

“Pleeeease!”

She was making it extremely hard to say no. And did I really want to shut down the first friend I made here?

“Sure, why not,” I finally said. I had the sneaking suspicion she wasn’t going to let up until I agreed anyway.

She squealed and interlocked her arm through mine. “We’re going to have so much fun!” she announced, hopping around like an excited bunny. “I can’t wait to show you off.”

My own smile, however, was short-lived. “So when you say everyone goes there, does that mean like...everyone?”

She hesitated before answering. “Okay, alright, soyes, Nikki and Trace will be there. But maybe that’s a good thing.”

I raised a brow at her. “How do you figure?”

“Think about it. Maybe this is your chance to show her that you’re not interested in Trace. We can totally scout out some new hotties and flirt with them until she doesn’t even remember you exist. It’s the perfect opportunity for you to get off her radar.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the lack of sleep or hysteria from my first day of school, but Taylor’s plan was actually making sense. Maybe this was my chance to show her I wasn’t a threat to her and that I had no interest in her boyfriend—well, none that I intended on following through with.

Maybe this was exactly what I needed to get her off my back and salvage whatever chance I had left for a nice, peaceful, below-the-radar existence at Weston Academy.

Maybe.

4. DANGEROUS CONNECTIONS

There was a lineup halfway around the building by the time I got to the bar. No velvet ropes or carpet runners, just a messy line of bodies and a single bouncer at the front door, presiding over who gets in and who doesn’t. The building itself looked like it might have been a warehouse at one time but had that chic refurbished feel to it along with a lit-up retro sign plastered across the front that boldly exclaimed this wasALL SAINTS, lest anyone forgot it.

I sent Taylor a text message as soon as I got there. She was outside within two minutes, waving me to the front of the line.

“She’s with me,” she said, smiling at the tall, bald-headed bouncer who was manning the front door.

He was dressed in fitted black clothes and stood dauntingly with his mammoth arms crossed over his chest. “I.D.”

I wasn’t sure which cards he wanted so I pulled them all out and presented them to him like some sort of weird offering.

He made a face at me and took one from the bunch. “Hand.”

“Hand?”

“Give me your hand so I can stamp it,” he repeated, obviously annoyed with my rookie mistakes.

“Right. Sorry.”

His hand descended over mine. When he pulled it back, the wordunderagewas stamped across it in thick black ink, branding me with my own little mark of ageist shame.

Inside, the bar looked just the way you’d imagine a warehouse-turned-bar-and-grill might look. A large, open space painted in sinister colors with dark furniture, stained-glass windows, and floor-to-ceiling brick walls that lent themselves to the whole industrial motif. There was plenty of tables and seating all around the place, pool tables in the back corner, and a space in the middle where people were dancing.

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